1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for an encryption and decryption variable key ladder.
2. Background Art
Conventional implementations of media (e.g., video, audio, video plus audio, and the like) program stream delivery systems (e.g., cable, satellite, etc.) typically include cryptographic techniques such as conditional access (CA) to provide security to the media stream. There are complex legacy (i.e., conventional) CA systems that use 3 or 4 tier encryption and decryption key hierarchies which are fixed, sometimes implemented in hardware state machines and not modifiable. Such conventional CA system approaches are unable to accommodate future security needs or new business models. The conventional approaches fail to provide for increased security, flexibility in new business models, and ability to counter attacks by the hacker community.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a system and a method for an encryption and decryption variable key ladder that overcomes deficiencies of conventional approaches.